Bone Harp by Silvia Bonilla

We take shelter in dead cows andlift ourselves with hooks to keep out of sight.At check points, our dangling bodieshold legs to chest, as instructed, to avoid detention. All language snuffed outby the blue perch of meat. It’s a miraculousthing to be wrapped in it.After we pass, relief rustlesthe epidermis—enough to warm usfor some time.Who trained our bodies for this?Poverty is violence.We know the look of deadthings behind pinned drapes and how to makehistory in one day. We bent at the kneesto kiss our children’s faces.

SILVIA BONILLA is the author of An Animal Startled by the Mechanisms of Life, published by Deadly Chaps in 2014. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Fiction Now, Leveler Poetry, and White Ash Magazine, among others. She has received scholarships from Slice, Vermont Arts Studio, and Tupelo Press. She lives in New York.